Friendship in Progress
by GakuenAlicefan27
Summary: "You can't rush perfection, Hunt." Call snorted. "Right." He grabbed the first three products that were within his reach. "But I can try. I'll be holding these for ransom until you have breakfast." Or: The sequel to "The Capacity for Friendship" - Though you don't need to have read it to understand this one.


A/N: I actually wasn't planning on writing a sequel to "The Capacity for Friendship", but I was hit with inspiration. You don't have to have read "The Capacity for Friendship" to understand this fic, but I'd recommend it.

I also published this fic on AO3 (username: MidnightHalo27)

This fic is not compliant with The Bronze Key. The Bronze Key didn't happen, as far as I'm concerned *sniffs*

Disclaimer: The Magisterium book series belongs to Cassandra Clare and Holly Black, not me.

I hope you like it! Reviews, kudos, etc are awesome! Constructive criticism is very welcome, but flames will be used to roast marshmallows.

* * *

 **Friendship in Progress**

 _by: GakuenAlicefan27_

"So." Alastair said as he put Call's bag in the back of the car.

Call looked at him. "So?"

"I was…under the impression that you and this Jasper kid didn't get along." His father said, nodding to where Jasper was saying his good-byes to Rafe and Celia as they all left for the summer.

Call shrugged. "He needs a break." He said, not knowing how to begin explaining Jasper's family drama.

Alastair didn't ask him to elaborate though, just nodded. "I see." He grabbed his keys. "Have you said good-bye to your friends already?"

"Yeah." Call said. "Aaron and Tamara left for The Gables about an hour ago." Aaron had stayed at Call's last summer, so they agreed that he'd stay at Tamara's this time.

Call opened the car door for Havoc, who jumped in and made himself comfortable in the backseat. Jasper made his way over.

"Ready?"

"Let's see how this summer goes." Jasper said, grimacing for dramatic effect.

Call hit him on the shoulder. "Just get in the car."

~x~

"Is there a reason why you're staring at your bed as if it has personally offended you, Jasper?" Call asked, even though he already had a pretty good idea of the answer.

"Bed?" Jasper said scowling. "That's a military cot."

"Same difference."

"Excuse me? I shouldn't have to sleep in a military cot!"

"Aaron slept on it just fine." Call said, resisting the urge to throw his pillow at Jasper.

Jasper sneered. "I don't care what golden boy did, that's no way to treat a guest!"

"That's no way for a guest to behave." Call retorted. "Just go to sleep, already!"

"I refuse to – Humph!" He looked at the pillow that had just hit him in the face. "Did you just throw a pillow at me, Hunt?!"

"Good-night." Call said, getting his pillow back with air magic and using it to cover his own head to muffle Jasper's voice. He was beginning to wonder what mess he'd gotten himself into this time.

~x~

"You've been in there for an hour, man." Call said, staring unimpressed from the bathroom door.

Jasper was standing in front of the mirror, surrounded by dozens of hair and skin products that Call didn't even know how he'd fit into his luggage in the first place, but magic was probably involved. He looked at Call with annoyance as he tried to fix some invisible strand out of place in his perfectly styled hair.

"You can't rush perfection, Hunt."

Call snorted. "Right." He grabbed the first three products that were within his reach. "But I can try. I'll be holding these for ransom until you have breakfast."

The other narrowed his eyes at him. "Listen here, shorty. You have three exact seconds to give those back, or else…"

"I'll take my chances." Call said, and ran out of the bathroom as fast as his bad leg allowed.

~x~

They got a call from Tamara and Aaron three days into the summer vacation. Call put it on speaker so Jasper could hear it too, and then spent a few minutes talking to her, listening as she told him about what she and Aaron had done the day before, until she asked about Jasper.

Tamara laughed. "Say, has Jasper driven you up the wall yet?"

Jasper made an indignant noise. "Excuse me?! He's the one who's making me wanna pull my hair out!"

Call was about to retort when a loud shriek came from the other end of the line, followed by a voice that Call recognized as Aaron's saying something that sounded like: "WHAT THE..?!"

"HE'S REALLY THERE?!" Tamara screamed, which nearly made Call drop the phone.

"Oh my God, Tamara! Why did you have to scream?!" Jasper said, covering his ears with his hands.

"Call, I thought you were kidding me when you said Jasper was going to spend the summer at your place!" Tamara exclaimed.

"So did I!" Came Aaron's voice again. "Holy crap, it's been three days already! How haven't you two killed each other yet?!"

Call tried to sound offended, but ended up sounding playful. "I'll have you know that when you see us again at the beginning of the school year both of us are going to be alive and unharmed."

"Now that's a pretty big promise to keep…" Jasper began.

"Shut it!" He said.

"Oh my…" Tamara said. Call imagined her shaking her head at them. "Now I'll have to call every day to make sure neither of you has committed murder."

"Don't worry about me, I'm gonna make it look like an accident." Jasper said, which earned him a neck slap that turned into both of them mock fighting while Aaron and Tamara laughed at their expense over the phone.

~x~

"Your dad is kind of…" Jasper began. Call raised an eyebrow. "Socially awkward." He concluded, eating a spoonful of the cereal that he swore he hated but Call knew he actually loved.

Call shrugged. "He's always been like that."

"Even when he was a teenager?" Jasper asked.

"I'm not sure." Call frowned. "I asked Master Rufus once and he said that dad had always been more of the quiet type, but I think he closed off more after…everything."

Jasper nodded. "He's had a lot on his plate." He wiped his mouth with a napkin. "Must be why he's so scatter-brained too."

"Hey!" Call protested.

"What? It's true! He's always forgetting where he puts his stuff."

"It's not that bad."

"I found a car part on the fridge yesterday."

Call's mouth twitched, but he forced himself not to smile. "That's normal for dad."

"Jesus." Jasper shook his head. Havoc barked and tried to steal his cereal.

~x~

"Hey! Do you want to…what are you doing?" Call asked, eyeing the pile of books on the kitchen table.

Jasper looked up from whatever it was he was writing. "What does it look like I'm doing? Homework, of course."

Call raised his eyebrows. "Master Milagros gave you homework for the summer?"

"Of course. Didn't Master Rufus?"

"Never." Call and Alastair said in unison, which nearly made Call jump out of his skin because he hadn't even realized his father was leaning on the kitchen counter while eating an apple.

Jasper huffed. "Master Rufus is too soft on you."

"Bless him." Call said, trying not to smirk. Jasper gave him the evil eye.

~x~

"Have you seen my Bronze year bracelet?" Call asked, peeking down beneath his bed.

"Oh my God, don't tell me you lost it again?!"

"I could have sworn I left it on the nightstand…"

"You're as bad as your dad!"

"Maybe I should look inside the fridge, then."

~x~

"Okay, then. Bye." Jasper said, softly. He'd been talking on the phone when Call entered his bedroom, and the easy smile on his face had been enough to stop him on his tracks.

"What is it?" Jasper asked when he caught him staring.

"Who were you talking to?" Call asked, before he could stop himself. He was too astonished at how happy Jasper had looked while on the phone.

"My older brother." Jasper answered, which was a statement to how much their rocky friendship had progressed over the summer. If Call had asked something like that a few months ago, Jasper would probably have glared at him and said nothing.

"Oh." Call said. That was the first time, or at least the first time Call was aware of, that Jasper had been in contact with someone from his family this summer. As far as he knew, his parents hadn't called, and Jasper hadn't called either. "Cool. Are you close?"

Jasper shrugged. "I guess. We have our moments." He said, sounding embarrassed. It didn't seem like he knew how to openly talk about this sentimental stuff. Call decided not to tease him about it.

~x~

"I see you found the bracelet."

"…Yeah."

"Where was it this time?"

"…Doesn't matter."

"…It actually was inside the fridge, wasn't it?"

"I'll neither confirm nor deny that statement."

~x~

"What?" Call asked, wearily looking at Jasper, who was staring at him with a sour face.

"You grew taller during the summer." Jasper said, bitterly.

Call blinked, looking down at his own body. "Really? I didn't notice."

Jasper raised an eyebrow. "You didn't notice? You grew at least four inches! Your clothes barely fit anymore."

"It can't have been that much."

"No, he's right." Alastair said from where he was sipping at his coffee. "You had a growth spurt this summer. You're nearly as tall as I was when I was your age."

Call looked at Jasper, comparing their heights. He was at least an inch taller than him now. He smirked. "Guess you can't make short jokes anymore."

Jasper snorted. "I'll find new jokes to make."

~x~

"I sincerely hope you're not calling me to ask how to hide a body." Tamara said, over the phone.

"No." Jasper replied, dodging Call's attempts at taking the phone out of his hand. "I'm calling you so you can tell an idiot that being good at Cards Against Humanity doesn't make him secretly evil."

There was silence on the other end of the line and then, "Pass the phone to said idiot."

"How did you even know I was thinking that?!" Call asked, instead of accepting the phone.

"Because it was written all over your face!"

"It was not!"

"Yes, it was!"

~x~

"What's wrong?" Jasper asked, looking at Call as he stared at his father working on a car in the front of the house.

Call shook his head abruptly, as if his mind had been far away from there. "Nothing."

Jasper raised an eyebrow, taking a sip of the mug of hot chocolate he was holding. He looked at his nails, doing that thing in which he tried to act detached when Call knew he actually cared. "You worried your father is gonna set himself on fire or something?"

Call chuckled. "No." He said, getting away from the window before Alastair saw them. "I was just thinking…"

"Well, that's a first…"

"Shut up." Call flicked him in the ear. "I was thinking of how we're going back to school soon, and dad is gonna be here all by himself." He shrugged. "I always think about that."

"Oh." Jasper said

"I just wish he had someone, you know? A friend at least, or even more. Having a girlfriend or a boyfriend to make him company wouldn't hurt."

Jasper choked on the hot chocolate.

"Dude!" Call exclaimed, looking all over his shirt to make sure nothing had spilled on him. Havoc barked, startled. "What the hell was that?"

"Sorry." Jasper said, still sounding a little strangled. "I just…didn't know your father was bisexual."

"Oh." Call said, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. "Is that a problem for you?"

Jasper shook his head. "I didn't mean to offend, I was just surprised. I had the same reaction when Celia mentioned her mothers for the first time, don't you remember?"

Call thought back to their Iron Year, when Celia had casually begun telling a fun family story and Jasper had nearly turned blue from choking on his juice. He hadn't treated Celia any differently after that though.

"I remember." He said.

Jasper sighed. "It's how casually you said it. I guess I'm just not used to it."

Call shrugged. "Dad always made it clear to me that love was love. It was never a big deal to me." He patted Havoc behind the ears. "I'm attracted to both, too."

"Oh." Jasper said. "Did you…always know?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

After that, Jasper changed the topic. Call didn't ask him about his sexual orientation. He figured he'd tell him if he felt comfortable.

~x~

"Dude, give up. You can't skate to save your life." Call said, looking at Jasper as he tried to balance himself on Call's skate for the eleventh time.

"Shut up! I'm gonna get the hang of it!" Jasper said, just before falling on the ground again.

"You're gonna be covered in bruises by nighttime." Call commented.

"I'm gonna have mastered the skate by the time summer ends!" Jasper insisted. Call didn't even think Jasper wanted to learn how to skate this badly; he probably kept trying out of pride.

"Which year's summer?" Call mocked.

"I will!"

"Without using air magic to cheat? Impossible."

"I'm gonna make you eat your words."

~x~

"Jasper, for the love of God, why do you have to be such a bride to get anywhere?!" Call yelled, not caring that half the neighborhood could probably hear him. At this rate, people knew better than to be baffled by the Hunts.

They had to be ready soon if they wanted to get to the bus on time, but Jasper was still packing his thousand things while Call and Havoc were growing gray in the living room.

"Stop screaming, you banshee! I'm not deaf!" Jasper yelled, too. Soon enough though he came into view, luggage in hand.

"Finally!" Call said. Havoc wagged his tail happily, and they made their way out of the house.

* * *

A/N: Thank you very much for reading!

I always love to discuss anything Magisterium related! You can find me on tumblr as agarotado27dejunho


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